It is only a matter of time until Greece leaves the European Union. Is that time now? We shall likely find out this week.

As I was writing the Spirit of Prophecy, I was in the process of making my way out of classical Dispensationalism. I realized that for everything Scripture says to be true, that there must be changes to the way we view the End Times. These changes took me away from classical Dispensationalism, but NOT in the direction of Amillennialism, Post-Millennialism, or Preterism! That would be like a dog returning to its vomit! Dispensationalism is certainly more biblical than any of these other systems but, in my opinion, they did not move far enough away from them, or to a completely biblical eschatology.

Jesus told us to “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” (Matthew 24:42) Now, Dispensationalism tells us that there does not need to be any fulfilment of any prophecies before the rapture of the Church. They tell us that the rapture could have occurred at any time since the Lord’s ascension. The problem is that if there is something to watch for, there must be some sort of warning, in the form of fulfilled End Times prophecies.

As I studied I did indeed come across prophecies that must have their fulfilment during the closing days of the Church Age. It appears that Jesus’ earlier statements in Matthew, concerning “wars and rumours of wars”, and “famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.” are also prophetic signs of the end, and these signs are linked together. Well, not earthquakes, but wars cause famines, and disease.

And another thing; Jesus was not referring to the general time of continual warfare that has plagued mankind since the first century. No, Jesus was referring to specific events. Events that can be found in Scripture. Jesus was always referring back to the Old Testament, all the time! The bible’s prophecies have one characteristic that puts them head and shoulders above any other sort of prophecies; They are specific prophecies about specific events.

Prophecies of false prophets are very general in nature, and can be taken in more than one way. Attempting to generalize God’s prophecies also has similar effects, and has the ultimate effect of cheapening the Word of God, or at least degrading people’s view of it!

Of course, Satan has learned that he needs to be more specific in his prophecies, in order to be believed, and so you will find that many false prophecies today are actually based on biblical prophecies, only with a twist in their interpretation. Many people who profess to be Christians are engaging in false prophecies which twist the bible’s statements, and make it more likely that as End Times events come upon us, people will interpret these events in ways that cloud their vision and make it more likely that they will be deceived!

I grew up in Baptist Churches where teachers were attempting to explain away the events of the Tribulation, even back in the 1970s. I remember how one Sunday School teacher thought that the supernatural “locusts with a sting in the tail” of Revelation 9:10 might be military helicopters!

“And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. 8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. 9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.” Revelation 9:7-10

Really that’s a silly interpretation; Helicopters can kill people, but these beings only have the ability to administer painful stings, and to leave people alive and in torment. What this Sunday-school teacher was doing was attempting to apply a natural explanation for a supernatural event.

This kind of post-modern interpretation is very dangerous. It could have the effect of leading people viewing a war, with helicopters involved, to think they were in the Tribulation itself!

The Euphrates river can today have its flow stopped by closing the dams on the river. This technique could shut off the flow for several months, as has been done already. I have heard prophecy scholars say that this could be the fulfilment of Revelaton 16:12;

“And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the greatriverEuphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared.”

The problem is that the text itself tells us why the river dries-up; it will be because of a severe drought! These teachers may have been sincere, but they were very wrong, and very unbiblical!

We could take this same method of interpretation and apply it to many of the events of the Tribulation, to the extent that a pre-Tribulation war might be interpreted as being a part of the Tribulation itself! In fact this is exactly what is going to happen in the next few years, and many Christian teachers will be guilty of misleading the world!

This is Satan’s plan to deceive the world, and it will work very well, because of the biblical illiteracy of bible teachers!

Another significant feature of the End Times story is a ten nation confederacy. The bible is clear that the Antichrist’s kingdom will encompass the whole world, but many prophecy “scholars” are still teaching that the ten nation confederacy of Revelation 17 will be a local union of only ten states, in the area of the Mediterranean sea! A revived Roman Empire!

Even the Club of Rome, in their 1974 book, “Mankind at the Turning Point” wrote about their plan to divide the world up into ten regional governments, and then to pull them together to form a one world government.

The same book also told of their plan to use the fear of global warming (or global cooling), as a means to push for global governance. We see in the media every day that they are carrying out this plan, so why would we doubt their seriousness in forming a world government of ten regional super-nations?

Their plan is exactly in line with the events of the book of Revelation.

So what if we see the European Union break-up into two or three smaller groupings of nations? What if one of those groupings is comprised of ten European nations? Everything I have said so far is still true; this is still a part of the plan.

A lot of Christians, even many Catholics, would view a ten nation European confederacy, as fulfilment of the ten kings of Revelation 17, especially if their capital is Rome. With pope Francis allied with an Atheist like Alexis Tsipras, many just might see a parallel with the Antichrist and the false prophet of the book of Revelation. Once again, this is the plan!

As of June 2015 we are seeing a lot of stress being put upon the ties that bind the European Union together. Greece is getting very close to a default on their loans, and they are showing no signs of backing down. France is blockading their border with Italy, to keep more African and Arab refugees from entering, and Hungary is talking about putting up a fence between themselves and Serbia, for the exact same reasons.

The “Grexit” is looming on the horizon!

Meanwhile the Germans, the French, and the Slovaks are getting tired of bailing out Greece, and supporting Greece’s lowest retirement age in the EU, while their own elderly continue working!

As I stated in the Spirit of Prophecy, it does appear probable that the European Union will dissolve, and be replaced by two or three smaller economic unions. (I think three)

None of these unions is the kingdom of the Antichrist, however many will interpret one of them as being exactly that!

I cannot say exactly what the borders will be, at this time, but you can bet it will be the one in Southern Europe, which contains both Italy and Greece, which will have their capital in Rome, with a total number of ten nations involved. This union will even be involved in a peace deal between Israel and the Arabs, in the aftermath of the Psalm 83 war, and while this might be the exact deal later agreed to by the real Antichrist, the original signer/broker is NOT the Antichrist! There will be a leftist leader involved, and he just might be Alexis Tsipras, but even so, this is not the kingdom of the Antichrist!

Satan just wants you to think it is!

The current Greek crisis just might be the beginning of Satan setting up his most major counterfeit; a counterfeit of the kingdom the the Antichrist!

The defining characteristic of a counterfeit is that it looks a lot like the real thing. So, Satan is going to present a kingdom to the world that looks a lot like the kingdom of the Antichrist, and many professing Christians will take the bait! This counterfeit Tribulation will end with a biblically prophesied war; the war of Gog/Magog, and you will be able to open your bible and see that this is definitely that war. The placement of that war, however, is an interpretation, and the Holy Spirit has placed it in a different place than the majority of “prophecy scholars”!

This means, of course, that those prophecy scholars who are telling us that the Gog/Magog war is a part of the Tribulation period, or that it is synonymous with Armageddon, are false teachers! As I have stated many times, Zephaniah 2:1-2 tells us that Israel will be gathered BEFORE the Tribulation, and Ezekiel tells us, in 39:25-28, that the last remnants of Israel will return AFTER the Gog/Magog war, and there will be none left anywhere else!

Do the math!

This means that the Gog/Magog war is the last major Church-Age event, and not a part of the Tribulation at all! The events leading up to this war will be interpreted, by many Christian leaders, as being part of the Tribulation, but it is not even possible! Not at all!